Talk:Union Pacific Railroad/@comment-24406954-20130822151108/@comment-24.176.184.14-20171014182120
This AND the Wikipedia entry for UP are quite screwed up by an individual or individuals who don't quite have a handle on the corporate/merger history, and who are trying to come up with their own definitions of time frames to make sense of their own personal confusion. Having said that, railfans and historians should try to develop SOME type of chronological categorization for the various eras of the UP as it would provide a clearer picture of the company's development. I am going to take a stab at it and propose the following, using the UP's own online chronology from their corporate website: https://www.up.com/aboutup/history/chronology/index.htm (1862-1897) - PIONEER or OVERLAND ERA - Start from original construction throught the Golden Spike in 1869, when the UPs emphasis was serving as a vehicle for colonizing the American West as the eastern component of the Transcontinental Railroad. Characterized by construction into new territory, including the OSL. This era would prettty much end with the bankruptcy of 1893 and the purchase of the controlling interest by the Harriman faction in 1897. (1897-1913?) - HARRIMAN ERA - A term already in use and understood by many railfans and historians. Control by IC president E.H. Harriman, purchase of nearly one half of SPs stock, commonality of rolling stock designs between the various Harriman-controlled railroads, a prelude/"what if" to the UP/SP merger a century later. (1913?-1934) - POST-HARRIMAN? or PRE-CLASSIC? If we want to consider the Harriman Era to end with ICC/Supreme Court decisions to force divestment of the SP, this would be a separate era. Not sure how to name it, or if it even merits an era of its own,maybe the Harriman Era timeframe should be extended? (134-1982) - CLASSIC ERA - To me this is the most clearly defined era, and of the greatest interest to most UP fans, as it covers and conjures up all the iconography of the UP in popular legend, especially in terms of rolling stock: Streamliners, the articulated Challengers and Big Boys, the gas-turbines, turbocharging, double-engined diesels, 90 MPH freight trains, and all the experimental/cutting-edge type of stuff that makes the UP stand out. It is also the time frame corresponding with the extent of trackage/physical plant that most people would consider to be representative of classic/traditional Union Pacifc operating territory. Era would start with the M-10000 streamliner and end with the "WUMP" (WP/UP/MP) merger in 1982. (1982-1996) - FIRST MERGER ERA - Merger with the Western Pacific and Missouri Pacific and roughly doubling the company trackage and operating territory. This is the era when the UP assumes the magnitude of size (locos/rolling stock/trackage) of the majors of the time (SP/AT&SF/Conrail), and covers the period up to the SP merger. (1996-present) - SECOND MERGER ERA - Significant on its own, not just because of the merger with SP but the nearly concurrent formation of major competitor BNSF. dissolution of Conrail, and the resultant expansion of NS and CSX to their current form, the creation of the new "Big Four" in the US and their super-system counterparts CP and CN in Canada. Just my $0.02 worth. Any comments?